When a terminal loads and boots an operating system (OS) from a server or the like to which the terminal is connected, the usual practice is to use a preboot environment (a boot setting environment) that has been stored in an option ROM (read-only memory) on the NIC (Network Interface Card) of the terminal, for example, and download a boot image that has been registered with the server to the terminal as a binary image, whereby start-up is achieved.
The specification of Japanese Patent Kokai publication JP-A-7-319709 discloses an information processing system equipped with a recording/reproducing apparatus for recording information on and reproducing information from a removable storage medium having a writable area and a read-only area on which boot information, operating-system information, program information that is run on the basis of the operating system and management information has been stored, wherein a central processing unit causes the recording/reproducing apparatus to reproduce the operating-system information from the recording medium and store this information in memory. Further, the specification of Japanese Patent Kokai Publication JP-A-10-511783 discloses an arrangement which, before the operating system of a work station is fully loaded, transfers controls from boot preprocessing of the work station to external processing, starts up the network connection of the work station to the network server, updates the files in the work station based upon data that has been placed in the server, and loads and executes various elements of the work station and network operating system during the work station booting sequence.